Hindus hail UN resolution of proclaiming “International Day of Yoga”

Hindus have welcomed United Nations (UN) General Assembly Resolution of proclaiming June 21 as International Day of Yoga.

It received overwhelming support, with more than 170 co-sponsor member states. The representative of Sao Tome and Principe also underlined that yoga would not only promote health, but supported clarity of vision and action. That clarity could help prevent contradictions, which often generated confusion while making rules and promoting laws, a UN release says. India’s Prime Minister Narendra D. Modi proposed the Day.

Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, calling it a “step in the positive direction”, suggested all public schools of the world to incorporate yoga in the lives of their pupils. Yoga, referred as “a living fossil”, was a mental and physical discipline, for everybody to share and benefit from, whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, Zed pointed out.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, further said that yoga, although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical.

According to US National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to an estimate, about 21 million Americans, including many celebrities, now practice yoga. Yoga is the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Rajan Zed adds.